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Solo Raid is where you find out whether a roster is built or assembled. The mode strips away the safety net of campaign auto-battles and forces every slot to justify its place. Most discussions center on the usual suspects, Crown, Rapi: Red Hood, Cinderella, and that conversation is not wrong. Those units earn their reputation. But the obsession with T0 rosters causes commanders to bench units that are genuinely delivering results, or worse, skip investment on characters they already own. Some of the best Solo Raid performances come from units sitting quietly in A-tier or lower on most lists.
This is not a beginner’s guide to the mode. If you want core mechanics explained, the Nikke.gg tier list covers character rankings and fundamentals well. This article is for commanders who already understand burst rotation but feel stuck watching the same five names dominate every team suggestion.
Original Dorothy: The Burst I Nobody Is Building Right
Most Solo Raid breakdowns file base Dorothy into the skip pile or gloss over her entirely in favor of flashier Burst III options. That dismissal is premature. Original Dorothy is a Burst I specialist whose manual reload mechanic triggers party-wide cooldown reduction and part damage amplification simultaneously on every last-bullet fire. Against bosses with multiple destructible parts, that combination does not just help, it changes the ceiling of what your DPS units can reach across the entire rotation.
The catch is that she rewards deliberate manual play. Commanders who let the game run on auto will see mediocre numbers and write her off. Those who trigger her last-bullet reloads intentionally will notice their Burst III units cycling faster than any standard rotation allows. In multi-part boss fights, the up to 44% part damage amplification at max skill level makes her close to essential rather than situational, a fact confirmed by her continued appearance in competitive Solo Raid team breakdowns.
According to the Prydwen Institute bossing tier changelog from January 2026, Dorothy maintains viability in boss team slots specifically because of her part-damage amplification, which scales better as boss part counts increase. That signal has not filtered into mainstream tier list discussions, where she is often overlooked in favor of newer or flashier alternatives.
Modernia: Still Carrying Accounts Without Red Hood or Cinderella
Tier lists placing Modernia at A or T2 are not wrong in isolation. Compared to Red Hood’s flexibility or Cinderella’s true damage output against high-defense targets, she sits a step below. The problem is that most players reading those lists already do not own those alternatives. For commanders running F2P or near-F2P rosters, Modernia is the most accessible Burst III machine gun DPS in the game, and she is significantly better than her ranking implies when your other options are limited.
Her 15-second burst window has no target cap, which matters more than most tier list explanations acknowledge. Campaign stages that pile raptures in waves collapse under her burst. In Solo Raid boss fights, she does not hit Cinderella’s ceiling against armored targets, but she sustains competitive damage off-burst in a way that many specialist DPS units cannot. Teams built around her rather than treating her as a filler actually function, especially when supported with Bastion Speed cubes and ATK overload gear.
She is also guaranteed free at every Anniversary event. That accessibility is not a mark against her quality. It means every commander has her and nobody is spending resources to acquire her, which is the ideal situation for a unit you want to invest skill books into early.
Naga: Underused Without Tia, Underestimated With Her
The assumption that Naga requires Tia to function has kept many commanders from building her properly as a standalone unit. Her passive healing works independently of Tia’s presence. In teams running aggressive carry compositions with units like Scarlet: Black Shadow or A2, Naga’s passive prevents the HP depletion that sinks those runs before burst cycles complete. Without Tia, you lose the offensive synergy and cooldown reduction. You do not lose the sustain.
Where the conventional narrative really undersells Naga is in accounts that own both halves of the duo but have not invested in Tia at the appropriate level. A maxed Naga paired with a skill-level-4 Tia delivers worse numbers than the reverse. If Tia is in your roster at low investment, Naga should be prioritized before her partner, not after. The sustained healing and minor ATK plus core damage buff she provides off-burst make her useful across content types, not only in the boss formats where the duo is traditionally discussed.
Alice: High Ceiling, Low Patience From the Community
Alice has a reputation problem. The investment requirement, specifically skills at 1/4/10 with max ammo overload gear rolls, pairs badly with the community expectation that strong units should function at moderate investment. Most commanders try her at 5/5/5, see average numbers, and move on. The tier lists reflect performance at optimal investment because that is what high-level testers run. The community reaction reflects moderate investment, because that is what most players actually try.
At full build, Alice is one of the highest-ceiling DPS units in the game for single-target boss content. Her charged shot timing requires practice, and her wave-clear applications are narrower than Modernia’s, but against the specific boss formats that dominate competitive Solo Raid scoring she competes with the top tier. Commanders who clear her investment bar consistently place in the top brackets of raid scoring. Those who bench her after a disappointing trial run miss what she actually delivers.
Pair her with the Maid duo (Anchor and Mast) if Crown is unavailable. The ATK buffs and reload-speed scaling from that combination bring her burst damage into competitive territory without requiring Pilgrim-level resources. That three-unit core handles the Burst II slot and scales Alice’s output simultaneously.
Making the Most of What You Have
The broader point behind all of these units is that Solo Raid scoring rewards investment depth, not just roster width. Spreading resources across 15 characters to cover every possible boss type leaves all of them underperforming against the boss that actually appears. Picking three to five units and taking them to proper skill levels, gear, and Harmony Cube configurations produces higher scores than a wide roster of lightly invested Nikkes, regardless of tier.
This applies to how you approach free resources as well. Every source of no-cost currency matters when you are pushing to fund skill books and gear investments on units like Alice or Dorothy. Players who treat free in-game resources the same way they approach options like free SC coins in social casino platforms, meaning they collect consistently rather than waiting for large windfalls, build faster than those who save and splurge on banners without the underlying roster infrastructure to support new additions.
Collecting Batteries from daily Solo Raid attempts, completing missions that generate Core Dust, and pushing Overload gear on your primary units gradually all compound in the same way that steady free currency accumulation does. The commanders finishing in the top percentiles are not necessarily the heaviest spenders. They are the most consistent investors in the roster they have.
Which Units Are Worth It
None of the units covered here require you to pull on new banners. Original Dorothy has been available since launch. Modernia is free at every Anniversary. Naga and Alice appear on the standard wish list and have been accessible long enough that committed F2P commanders are likely to own both. The Maid duo, Anchor and Mast, are permanent banner units with no limited status.
The investment case for each is straightforward. Dorothy rewards manual play with disproportionate returns in part-heavy boss fights. Modernia delivers consistent F2P performance without a Cinderella or Red Hood on the team. Naga sustains aggressive compositions independently. Alice hits competitive ceilings once properly built, and her supporting cast in the Maid duo is available without Pilgrim-level resources.
Solo Raid meta discussions tend to collapse into the same five names because those names genuinely are excellent. But the gap between T0 and A-tier is narrower in practice than most tier list presentations suggest, and the units sitting just below that line have been quietly winning raids for commanders willing to build them correctly.
